Comedy Central Cancels BattleBots

Rathian writes "Bad news for BattleBot lovers, I saw on the BattleBots Builder's Forum that CC is NOT going to film Phase 6.0 of BattleBots. You can see copies of the email from the BattleBots founders Trey & Greg at RobotCombat.com, and at Team DaVinci Robots God willing, another network will pick it up and keep this sport alive!"

Comments

Why?

[Slarty]

Not to be a troll, but the whole BattleBots concept has gone from new and fun to watch to rather dull within the span of a couple of years. That's why they had to throw Carmen Electra on, right? People weren't watching, and a little sex appeal was required?

Not that I don't think something BattleBots-ish won't survive for a while, but I doubt it'll be for long. Just a prediction.

Re:Why?

[HorsePunchKid]

I agree that it's become somewhat dull, but keep in mind that this recent (last few years?) wave of robot competition shows isn't the first. I remember watching Nova on PBS as a kid (err... well, maybe 10 years ago). My favorite ones were the robot competitions, only they generally weren't this one-on-one battle sort of situation. They'd have tasks to complete, and whichever did it best or fastest won. So they'd be building robots out of Legos and whatnot that would have to move ping pong balls from one box to another or fly magnetic discs over a net. I seem to remember them generally being autonomous, but I'm not sure. Anybody else remember these shows? (Heck, I'm sure some people here were involved directly in them!) Does this kind of thing still air anywhere?

About time..

[ziggles]

How many times can you watch remote controlled scrap metal bump into each other and flip each other before it gets boring? For me.. it only took one episode. Not to mention the show has no business being on COMEDY central, since the only funny thing is watching the obviously fake "chemistry" between the hosts. Oh.. and whatshername's boobies are nice.

i've seen this coming.

[edrugtrader]

i'm a loyal battlebots viewer.... but with the advent of 3-4 other 'bot' fighting shows, someone had to die.

battlebots is RAW, its just the bots out there with some minimal hazzards. you look at other shows like robot wars, and each individual bot makes little difference to who wins. there are like 5 huge 'house bots', and all you have to do to win is watch the house bot push the other guy in the pit. lame. shows like robotica are just glorified RC cars that race around. lame.

battlebots did everything right, no compaints here at all. i'll be watching the re-runs after back to back to back SNL marathons i'm sure.

on a side note, be sure to check out the new season of INSOMNIAC on comedy central, its fucking hilarious.

Re:i've seen this coming.

[Randatola]

The "rawness" of this entertainment is what is so compelling, I think. It is pure brutality waged by machines. If it were people being this brutal with each other, everybody would watch it too if they could (don't deny it). Battlebots to me has all the brutal appeal of, for example, Ultimate Fighting Championship, but without the social complications. Advertisers have no problem with it- in my market, there are always ads for Christian music albums during the show...never understood those demographics.

I also agree that the other Battlebots imitators (and I don't care who "really" was first, Battlebots was the first one anybody knew about) are unwatchably lame.

Although, there are too many hazards in Battlebots. They are too much of a factor in the fights. Too many fights are decided because somebody accidentally drives over a hazard, which is unavoidable because there are so many all over the place. Get rid of the spinners, the pistons, the spikes in the floor, and the lifting panels in the center. They just break up the flow of the action too much. They should just have the hammers and a couple sets of saws, and of course the spike strips on the sides, and let the robots fight. And please, make the hammers and saws sensor operated so that the jackass hammer nazi doesn't get to pick and choose who gets smashed. That's ridiculous.

I can see why

[bravehamster]

I stopped watching Battlebots after season 2. It just wasn't compelling TV. Most of the matches were like watching drunk boxing--A lot of swinging, but little contact. What I think needs to happen is for them to approach it from a whole other angle. The bots must be independent.

Independent bots would force the bot makers to build navigation systems (to avoid the hazards), target acquisition systems (to find the other bots), decision making (push the bot toward the hazard, or try to flip, or run away and hide until my buzz saw starts working again?).

Additionally, they should build a better arena and allow all those weapons currently outlawed, like EMP weapons, chemical, flamethrowers, magnetic grapples, swarms of multi-bots, etc. Should be much more exciting.

Re:I can see why

[edrugtrader]

... if you think it looks like drunk boxing when the human is controlling it directly, what do you think it will look like when the human writes a system that attempts to do exactlly what it would do if a human was controlling it directly?

MUCH MUCH less compelling.

allow EMP = biggest EMP always win, and TV coverage is impossible.

chemical = are we to expect the humans will go back into the ring to pick up their bot after it is sprayed with acid?

flamethrowers i don't have a problem with, just not real exciting.

i'll just stop there... but i really feel strongly about this, there is a give and take, and the current rules make for good fights. the second someone has a 30 foot flamethrower/EMP, and can beat any bot in 10 seconds, the show is over, and its all about ratings.

Re:I can see why

[gnovos]

i'll just stop there... but i really feel strongly about this, there is a give and take, and the current rules make for good fights. the second someone has a 30 foot flamethrower/EMP, and can beat any bot in 10 seconds, the show is over, and its all about ratings.

It can't beat the tiny bot that has magnetic feet (for sticking onto the bigger bot) and a old fashioned power drill (for drilling into it's head...). Creativity would make the show interesting when the rules are throw out the window.

BattleBots/RobotWars

[T-Kir]

Even though I never watched BattleBots, I watch Robot Wars in England. I'd have though BattleBots would be more suitable on Discovery or TLC rather than Comedy Central (like Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge)?

I'd think that it should have a chance of being picked up by another network, because a series like this that sparks innovation and interest in construction is better for Joe Public rather than Big Brother X (despite the 'socialology' aspect of it), The Mole, etc.

Re:BattleBots/RobotWars

[T-Kir]

After seeing the US version of Robot Wars, it is the actual UK version but lacking some of the behind the scenes stuff (I think) and with a different presenter (Craig Charles presents it in the UK - he played 'Lister' in Red Dwarf).

This is 'cos the BBC licences it to different countries (a bit like the TellyTubbies) so they get the original tapes for them to reproduce their own versions, whereas Junkyard/Scrapheap has the same co-presenter (who is also the exec producer) and they do a combination of UK/US filming.

You know what ultimatly killed this wonderful show

[WndrBr3d]

These cheap TNN and TNT rip-off shows where people slap a cooking pot on top of an RC car and race around a rat maze with flame-throwers scorching their tires.

Hosts, which are more than drunken, overweight ex-NASCAR commentators looking to pay for their recently upgraded mobile home.

It sickens me to see all these cheap K-Mart quality knock-off shows, which cheapen such RAD programming such as BattleBots.

This kinda crap happens with -EVERY- form of popular TV entertainment. Look at Reality TV for fucks sake. First it was Survivor, -HUGE- hit. Then came Big Brother, Temptation Island, Fear Factor, Worst Case Scenario and a slew of other knock-offs, which have watered down and sucked all the fun out of reality TV.

I guess basically it all boils down to me being pissed off my TiVo will no longer have robots ripping the crap out of one another. :-D

This is why!

[codepunk]

1. Too many weapons restrictions

2. Carmen should never be allowed to say anything

3. Get rid of the WWF spin crap and treat it like a nascar event.

4. Battlebots started making corporate deals poisioning the rules further by restricting equipment.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

TechTV!

[McSpew]

If ever there was a network born to show BattleBots, it's TechTV. Something tells me the budgets wouldn't be as high, but that might be a good thing. There wouldn't be as much impetus to tart the show up so much just to draw in the viewers required to pay back the budget.

Personally, I liked the original Robot Wars UK show the best. I did think the house robots had a little too much direct impact on the outcome, but I liked the concept of having qualifying rounds where the bots had to overcome challenges, followed by the individual combat rounds.

Maybe what's needed is some new thinking, like team robot combat. Maybe a capture-the-flag sort of thing. You could have robots optimized for offense and defense, which might add some interesting twists to a show. The problem would be that the costs to assemble an entire team of robots would be drastically more than for an individual robot or two.

Sorry to see it go.

[Jamuraa]

While the genre might be contested over as to it's worth, this show was the best show in the genre. I have watched in vain the other robot shows and noone gives the same 'feel' as this one does. Mabye it's because they don't treat it like wrestling or like trick dog shows, but they actually attempt to make it SEEM more like a sport. That said, being the cream of the crop of a horrible crop isn't something that comedy central is going for. I am actually surprised, because they seemed to prominently advertise it for a while (at least when I had comedy central). Not that it got good ratings or anything.
One thing that is missing from this show: a variety of weapons. The weapons shouldn't be limited, this just makes the teams stagnate with their wedge or flipper or spinner designs. The truly original bots just aren't seen anymore because they get beaten to shreds by the people who make the old, tired, (albeit successful) designs. I think allowing for more weapons will add variety to the field.

We can only hope that ESPN picks this up.. then they'd have something to show on ESPN2 that's not jocks having a pissing contest.

Toughman vs. BattleBots

[GuyMannDude]

Maybe FX will pick it up, they seem to have lots of fighting there...

A Toughman-BattleBots crossover show would be cool to watch! Have 5 battlebots attacking some plumber or construction worker or something. While he's got his hands full with fighting one robot, two others are hammering away at his feet! So he bends over to pick up one of the machines when a third one shoves a corkscrew up his...

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe this crossover show would be more suitable for Comedy Central...

GMD

Please not on TLC...

[OneFix]

BattleBots does not belong on TLC ... they already tried it...it was called Robotica!!! But, what we should really be getting behind are the shows like Junkyard Wars.

As I'm sure others will point out, these were generally nothing more than glorified remote controlled cars. The truly inovative bots were few and far between, and most of them were either designed as a "wedge" or a "flipper".

I'm not saying that shows like this shouldn't exist or even that it doesn't take know-how to build them, it's just that most of the ideas have been done over-and-over again...anyhow, I'ld call 5 years a pretty good run for most any show...I mean how much longer can you really go until there's nothing new being done. I actually think we're there now, we just didn't realize it till now.

You might get something as a Saturday Morning show on one of the networks, but I wouldn't count on it.

Here's a question...why can't the contests continue without a TV Show? I mean, anything that I'ld actually term as a sport should be able to survive without prime-time television coverage. And if it honestly holds such a large "geek" audience, then companies like IBM, Dell, and Apple should be scrambling to sponsor events and bots...

On a side note, I personally enjoyed the shows, but like most ppl thought it was out of place on CC.

Far too "orderly" combat

[pla]

The idea of making a machine to go in their to kill other machines sounds really cool. Hell, for the first two seasons, I watched it religiously, making it one of only two shows I watch regularly (the other, South Park, only having like 4 new episodes every six months anyway, so not all that time consuming).

However, by the third season, I (and I think *most* people) started realizing the choices of possible machine types, as limited by the extensive rules, made every "new" combat nothing more than a replay of something I'd already seen, with a new paint job.

Even now, I would start watching it again, if they ditch 90% of the rules. As long as a bot won't explode (and even "small" explosions, such as their 3" thick plexi cages would contain, seem alright), no holds barred. Flying bots? If someone can make them, good luck. Projectiles? Yup. Fire? Yup. Electricity? Yup. Entanglement? Again, Yup.

Make it a *real* contest of who can build the better bot, rather than who can build the better table-saw-or-jackhammer-on-wheels, and it would become interesting again.

I want to see REAL robot destruction. I don't want every match to end with one bot immobilized, mildly injured from a battery wire breaking, or its antenna clipped, or havings its wheels chopped off. I want sparking circuit boards, small explosions, the smell of ozone (well, okay, the home viewer couldn't enjoy that part), chunks of metal everywhere, etc.

Until then, I don't even care if Carmen starts hosting it nude. It has completely lost its "newness" appeal.

Battlebots is pretty good - if you have a TiVo

[jlower]

That way, you can watch a 30 minute episode in about 10 minutes, skipping all the commercials and filler.

I see a lot of comments about how it wasn't innovative and didn't evolve but I think it did. And even though more fights were boring than not, when there was a good fight, it was really cool. Even though the show had the 'feel' of Pro Wrestling, I never thought the fights were pre-determined - don't see how they could have been.

I hope some other network picks it up - I would miss it.